The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Akwa Ibom and democratic imperatives

    Akwa Ibom and democratic imperatives

    There is no gainsaying the truth that of all the political practices and philosophies that have defined human civilisation, not only is democracy the most useful and influential, it has actually evolved to become the definition of modern civilisation itself. In fact, in contemporary characterisation, it signifies sanity in governance, equity in leadership and progress in multi-party co-existence. The principles of democracy are generally known and universally accepted, yet their precise application very much depends on the historical context of the country and the people concerned. Each country or region chooses the particulars of the slant of democracy to practise which is tailor-made to its peculiarities in terms of demography and other considerations.

    Therefore, Nigeria adopted the federal character principle as part of its democratic practice, in order to counteract the nationality question that has been bedevilling the polity. Introduced more than thirty years ago, it has the potentials for achieving national integration which is the prerequisite for economic development. It made up the imbalance loudly pronounced between and among the various ethnic groups that make up Nigeria, which manifest in the political and economic atmosphere. These imbalances exist in almost every sector of the economy hence most people feel marginalized. So, it is the effective dousing of the tensions of marginalization by the application of the federal character principle that government at all other levels in Nigeria have adopted this basic philosophy especially in the allocation of political offices, appointments and postings.

    Akwa Ibom State, a major upwardly mobile oil-producing state, is a microcosmic representation in this practice. Although the state enjoys a relatively homogenous ethnicity with the resident ethnic groups of Ibibio, Annang, Oron, Ibeno and Eket, the prevailing principle of fair sharing, an offshoot of the federal character principle, dictates that these groups get equitable share of political deliverables. Moreover, asides from political best practices, by virtue of being brothers, the groups that make up the state are naturally predisposed to sharing, rotating, and conceding. This is because the similarities in language, music, values, art, styles, literature, family life, religion, ritual, food, ceremonies, public life and material culture is evidence of the historical fact that these people have always pursued common social, cultural political and economic relationships throughout times past.

    However, recent developments in the political arena of the state are gradually painting a different and unpalatable picture. If the truth must be told, today’s political analysis in the country, Akwa Ibom State inclusive, is subtly enmeshed in the evolving 2015 political realities. In this wise, the 2015 governorship race in Akwa Ibom State is now spurring on several political groups and pundits with all of them obsessed with the concept which revolves around democratic best practices: that of the rotation of the governorship slot among the three senatorial districts of the state. In clear terms, the question is which district should produce the next governor? The state is made up of three major ethnic groups of Ibibio, Annang and Oro. The Ibibio people are the major indigenes of the Uyo Senatorial District [though they are also found in other districts]; the Annang people reside in the Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District; while the Oro people are the major occupants of the Eket Senatorial District.

    Presently, while the people of Oro nation are known to be gearing up towards occupying the governorship seat in 2015, the major ethnic group in the state, Ibibio has reportedly asked them to wait as the seat was bound to return to the Ibibios who ceded to Annang in 2007 and 2011. The first governor in this current political dispensation, Obong Victor Attah, is from Uyo senatorial district, while the current governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, is from Ikot Ekpene senatorial district. It is established the state is made up of 31 local government areas, out of which Ibibio race has 14 local government areas spread across the three senatorial districts of Uyo, Eket and Ikot Ekpene; while Oro has five located along the coastline of Eket Senatorial District. This is apparently the majority premise proffered by the agitators for another power shift back to the Ibibio, but which in its entire essence turns the principle of equity and fair share – visible in our evolving national democratic practice – on its head.

    Nevertheless, it must be made clear that in order to engender equity and fair play in the state, power must be rotated between the tripod of the three ethnic groups, Ibibio, Annang and Oro; and not the three senatorial districts per se. This is the only way that the spirit of federal character principle could be replicated in the state in order to forestall future feelings of marginalisation and its attendant anti-development spawns. To illustrate, the Eket Senatorial District, in which the Oro nation is situated, boasts of powerful politicians who have served the state in various capacities, but who are actually Ibibio. Mr Nsima Ekere, the former deputy governor, who just resigned in a national headline-making manner, is one of such persons. So it will be counter-productive for the governorship slot to be given to an Ibibio from the district in the name of rotation. In fact, instead of assuaging the people of the senatorial district, it will only succeed in pitching brothers against brothers; and this no doubt will never augur well for the whole state either in the short or long run.

    I am of the well founded opinion that this is the right time for every lover of democracy in Akwa Ibom State to support any qualified candidate from the Oro nation who has the capacity, contacts and charisma to take the state to its next level of glory. The Nigerian political landscape of today has become more open, more inclusive, more issues-driven, and less rancorous, just because a qualified individual from a minority region has been allowed to ascend to the highest political office in the land. It has eased out bad blood, calmed frayed nerves and upped the ante in the nation’s political space, while raising our democratic status in the comity of nations. This is exactly my vision for my Akwa Ibom.

    By Sunday Isong

  • Governor Uduaghan must hear this

    Governor Uduaghan must hear this

    Dear Sir,

    It is disappointing and embarrassing that the good work of the Delta State Government under Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, is being thwarted by some disgruntled elements in Ubulu-Uku in order to make quick money to disorganise the town over incessant kingship tussle.

    Recently, the roof of Abuedo Primary School, Ubulu-Uku collapsed not up to five minutes after the pupils and teachers left the school, these ceilings and zinc of a classroom block that were just recently renovated. This would have been a disaster if the pupils and their teachers were still in the classroom.

    The said school was among those recently renovated by the state government; we thought a good work was done. Surprisingly, the reverse was the case. This, everybody will agree, was to thwart the efforts of the state government. The state government should urgently check all the on-going renovation works not only in Ubulu-Uku but other towns especially schools so that there will be value for money spent.

    What baffled me most was that during my investigation, I discovered that a native of the town was awarded the contract for the renovation works on Abuedo Primary School, Ubulu-Uku in Aniocha South Local Government Area. As a result, I want to appeal to the governor to investigate this and send the ‘powerful’ contractor cum politician back to site. This is too appalling! We understand that the contractor from Ubulu-Uku who did the shoddy work for his people, and claimed to be a ‘big’ politician, boasted that nothing will happen. Something needs to happen because a stitch in time saves nine. Again, it is poor tax payers’ money.

    May God grant us the illumination to see the limelight of Delta State’s elevation, and endow us with the courage, indomitable will and the unshakable faith to follow it without flinching.

    Adanma Ifeoma Nwankwor (Mrs.),

    Retired teacher, Ubulu-Uku.

    Delta State

  • Oil and budget 2013

    SIR: Imagine that you are a family man and your business is production and selling of pure water. There is now a discussion with your wife on the way forward on the family budget. Your wife knows that the higher the price of pure water, the more the money that would be available for groceries, shopping and travelling. It also happens that there are many other pure water sellers in your town. This has created a situation where you alone do not determine the price of this product. Moreover, simply because the raw material (which is natural borehole water) is readily available does not mean that the price of your pure water will remain favourable. If you were to assume a benchmark price for pure water, what would it be? Experience tells you N75 per bag is realistic but your wife is asking you to fix it at N80, eight naira higher than last year’s. She is also telling you she has faith that you will continue to produce and supply one million bags of this pure water per year.

    There are however ominous signs around. There is a buzz that one of your big buyers is now sourcing his water from a river because he has the technology to produce good quality pure water from it. Your warring neighbouring towns are also coming round to the negotiation table and a peace accord would mean dormant pure water factories would soon glut the market with high quality pure water. Should this happen (and it is looking more likely than less) there would be a sharp fall in the real family revenue. You would have to go a-borrowing to finance your house-hold needs.

    As the head of the family, you know that a lower price assumption of pure water price will not only curb your wife’s spending spree, it could be a blessing in disguise for your ailing farm business.

    This is the meat of the heated debate between the President and his Coordinating Minister of the Economy/Finance Minister on the one hand and the National Assembly on the other. In his 2013 budget speech proposal to the National Assembly three weeks ago, President Goodluck Jonathan had set $75 as the upper limit benchmark for oil price. The House of Representatives is pushing for $80.

    The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had, in defence of the government position, said the $75 oil benchmark “is based on moving averages of the world oil price and government’s simulations allowing for uncertainty in world oil price movements”. She said this was a “standard technique commonly used by commodity-dependent countries to protect them against the volatilities of oil”and in that respect “$75/barrel price represents an upper limit from our model, if Nigeria is to maintain a stable macroeconomic environment for next year.”

    The rationale for government position is obvious. A modest oil price benchmark is a vote for more diversification of revenue sources, less dependence on oil, development of other sectors and reduction in government spending especially its recurrent expenditure. And government seemed to be showing its intentions when President Goodluck Jonathan presented an appropriation bill of N4.9 trillion for 2013, compared with N4.697 trillion in 2012. The share of the recurrent spending in aggregate expenditure in the 2013 budget estimate was reduced from 71.47 per cent in 2012 to 68.7 per cent, while capital expenditure as a share of aggregate spending was also increased from 28.53 per cent in 2012 to 31.3 per cent in 2013.)

    But a lower oil price benchmark is also a matter of economic survival.

    Last week, the US Wall Street Journal published a sober report on the Nigeria oil situation. The 2008 experience where oil prices fell almost overnight from $147 per barrel to $38 per barrel is a sad reminder. This threat of oil price volatility remains constant and underscores the need to rely on a robust and prudent methodology to estimate the benchmark price.

    The legislature may also be secretly banking on a supposed excess liquidity that would sweep the economy if their $80 proposal carried the day. There would be more money for the government to throw around. An uncontrolled increase in liquidity will however be harmful to sound macroeconomic forecasts. Inflation rates would certainly rise significantly. The exchange rate would come under severe pressure, leading to a depreciation of the Naira. High inflation would result in higher interest rates. A combination of high inflation, interest rate and an unstable exchange rate is bad for economic planning, both for the government and for private businesses.

    It is also important to look at how some other oil producing countries are doing it. Angola currently has the highest benchmark at USD77. Algeria has $37, Venezuela $50, Qatar $55, Kuwait $60, Saudi Arabia $60, Oman $75. Should we now be competing for the highest in the world?

    Hopefully, the legislature will do the right thing – agree on a modest oil price benchmark that takes the interest of the Nigerian economy and its people into account.

    • Johnson Ogude

    Ilorin.

  • Lagos Okada restriction in perspective

    SIR: Permit me to clarify some things about the restriction of Okada on some major roads inLagos state. To some, it is a wrong move in a right path; some see it as a right move in a wrong path, while some others see nothing beneficial in the policy. Well, life is a comedy to a feeling man; it is a tragedy to a thinking man.

    To the first group of thinkers, the banning of Okada from plying some major roads of the state is a wrong decision but they see nothing bad in the way the policy is enforced taking into consideration the obdurate nature of the people on the street. If a right decision, as they claim, has been enforced this same way, they wouldn’t have gone against the policy. They see the policy as a wrong move in the right path.

    The second school of thought sees nothing bad in the policy but would not have subscribed to the way of enforcing it. In the process of enforcing it, the so called enforcement agents cause more calamity than what the policy was set to curb. By pursuing the defaulters, the police men maim and at times cause more death on the highways. To them, Governor Fashola should have devised a way of arresting the culprits different from the way of the Nigerian police.

    The third category of observers comprises those that may belong to the opposition party that see nothing worthwhile in the policies of the incumbent leader. They condemn instead of criticizing, they blame instead of praising. Their argument about the restriction of Okada from plying some major roads is that the government does not provide an alternative for those that are banned from the job. They often miss the content as well as the intent of the policy; they refer to it as though it is a total ban of Okada operation in the whole of the state.

    While it should be noted that the policy is to restrict the operation of Okada on some express ways where they serve as menace to human lives both as instrument of robbery and accident, the policy does not ban Okada operation in the entire State such as manner of other states like, Yobe, Kano, Abuja and Rivers.

    And since this policy has been in operation, reports have it that the twin menace of robbery and accident have grossly reduced in Lagos state.

    Those Okada riders that are restricted from the Expressways still have other minor roads to ply and make their money. Those that are condemning the policy are either in the political opposition and are looking for unreasonable political gimmicks to win the Lagos seat of power in 2015 or the gullible rustic common people on the street. Afterall, the Governor cannot be affect by the menace of Okada on Expressway neither can any of his convoy. The policy is for the betterment of those of us, the majority citizens of the state.

    • Christopher Mbanefo

    Ojo Alaba,Lagos state

  • Ribadu report: Vindicating Oronsaye

    Ribadu report: Vindicating Oronsaye

    In life, only very few things are as painful and psychologically enervating as the experience of being vilified by the public for taking a position which you know is right while the criticizing majority is gullibly led in the opposite direction which you know is patently wrong. That was the kind of experience one of Nigeria’s most accomplished technocrat and bureaucrat, Mr. Steven Oronsaye, was made to go through recently. He was the butt of cruel jokes and acerbic criticisms for disowning the report of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force of which former EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, was Chairman and Oronsaye was deputy chairman

    The committee was set up to, among other things, look into the various sources of revenues from the petroleum sector in the last 10 years and see if all monies that should accrue to the Federal Government actually got paid and, if not, recommend ways of plugging the leakages. Long before the committee concluded its work, Nigerians were regaled with reports in the media with headlines like: “Ribadu Vows to Nail Oil Thieves” and “Ribadu Gives Oil Thieves Red Card”. These and the reputation of Ribadu as an anti-corruption czar helped to raise expectations about the committee’s report.

    So when the report of the committee found its way to the media with a hint that it had earlier been submitted to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who appeared not to be enthusiastic about its implementation, it immediately caused a hoopla which made President Goodluck Jonathan to direct that the report be formally submitted to him by the committee. During the report submission ceremony on 1 November, 2012, at the Presidential Villa, Oronsaye publicly disowned the report arguing that due process was not followed in compiling it.

    For a report that had already been leaked to the media on the assumption that the powers that be want to consign it to the shelf to gather dust like most others before it, Oronsaye’s action was seen as a confirmation that there was indeed a conspiracy to kill the report. He was dubbed an ‘agent’ who had been ‘settled’ to deliver the bomb that would blow the report into smithereens.

    To make the toga of a ‘settled agent’ fit well on Oronsaye, Ribadu went ahead to point out that he (Oronsaye) was appointed into the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC a few months after the Task Force was inaugurated. Ribadu further insinuated that Oronsaye refused to attend meetings of the committee and only turned up once when the issue of Addax’s financial malfeasance was to be discussed and that he (Oronsaye) apparently turned up for the meeting because of his perceived interest in the company which Ribadu accused him of defending spiritedly throughout the session.

    Ordinarily, these allegations are enough to sway anyone that Oronsaye delivered his disclaimer on the report for rather selfish and unpatriotic reasons. But the facts that are beginning to emerge about the report as the dust of sentiment begins to settle down indicate otherwise.

    I must confess that I was one of those who believed that Oronsaye was guilty as charged, especially as his position that due process was not followed in compiling the report was endorsed by only one other member of the Task Force, Mr. Bernard Oti, who incidentally was appointed as Group Executive Director Finance and Accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and member of the Corporation’s Board a few months after the inauguration of the committee. To me, this showed a clear pattern of settled men were working hard to earn their pay.

    But having taken the pain to study the report, I am persuaded that Oronsaye has been vindicated and that he may have been moved by patriotic zeal to stick his neck out to disown the report. Oronsaye may have carefully considered how disappointed Nigerians would be when they would discover that the report did not so much as hold the so called oil thieves by the elbow not to talk of catching a single thief. Or how else do you describe a report that contains the most damning disclaimer of its essence contained in paragraph 4, page 2 of the report which states: “The data used in this report was presented by various stakeholders who made submission to the Task Force in the course of our assignment at various dates, which have been disclosed in relevant sections of the report. Due to time frame of the assignment, some of the data used could not be independently verified and the Task Force recommends that the Government should conduct such necessary verifications and reconciliations.”

    If the statement quoted above is not a disclaimer, then somebody needs to explain to Nigerians how it differs from what Oronsaye said at the report submission ceremony. In fact, I tend to believe that Oronsaye was being euphemistic in stating that the Task Force did not follow due process in arriving at its report because what Ribadu and his fellow committee members tell Nigerians by the above statement is that they did not do the job for which the committee was set up. And to my mind, not doing the job for which the committee was set up is definitely worse than doing it but not following due process.

    Not verifying the data submitted to the committee and recommending that “government should conduct all necessary verifications and reconciliations” is like pushing the job back to the government that set the committee up in the first place to thoroughly appraise data and figures with a view to determining where there are revenue leakages in the system. If the data and figures were not verified as admitted in the report then on what basis did it arrive at the conclusion that some companies and agencies did not pay what they ought to pay to government? How did the Task Force expect the government to prosecute those it indicted? On the basis of unverified and unreconciled figures?

    The point that Oronsaye was trying to make at the report submission ceremony has now become very clear: The Committee did not do what it ought to have done; if it was because of time constraint, it should have asked for more time to do the right thing.

    Looking back now, it is also getting clearer that all the allegations against Oronsaye that he disowned the report because he has been settled with appointment to the Board of NNPC and that he has interest in Addax are mere attempts to tarnish him and render his observation about the report questionable. If in spite of Oronsaye’s appointment into the Board of NNPC he was insisting on getting a better report done that could nail all those who shortchanged the country in one way or the other, then it is safe to conclude that he is a patriot.

    On the allegation that Oronsaye has interest in Addax because he turned up for meetings after a long period of absence from the committee’s meetings and insisted on the right process being adopted in appraising data that pertained to the firm, that argument is neither here nor there. In fact, it could be argued that Oronsaye’s action was consistent with his position that the committee’s work be properly discharged and above board. He has since denied having any interest in Addax. What we know about Addax in Nigeria today is that it has been bought over by Sinopec. It is left for those who made the allegation to substantiate it by coming out with facts. The Presidency has challenged Ribadu to name those whom he claimed tried to compromise him. It will be just fine for him to tell the Nigerian public all he knows about Oronsaye’s interest in Addax so that we can appraise him appropriately.

    But from all that we have seen in the report so far, there is no ground to impugn on Oronsaye’s integrity. In fact, the only thing the report has done very well, as far as one can see, is that it has vindicated the man.

    • Ataguba is a public affairs analyst.

  • The police should be worried

    The police should be worried

    One of the most difficult and unpleasant tasks top police officers in Nigeria face is how to respond to the misconduct of their men. They are often torn between the dignified acceptance of blame for the egregious actions of trigger-happy cops, with the implication of public loss of confidence in that security institution, and the deliberate and even instinctive resort to lying about those malfeasances in order to cover up for their men and present a façade of professionalism. The police top brass have so far not found the right formula to manage this dilemma and engender a reform-minded and reform-driven modern police organisation. The consequence is that in the past few decades, an increasingly unethical police force appears to dominate, override and compromise its top echelons, thereby giving the security organisation a bad image.

    The police should really be worried that their image is not improving. Not only are a significantly large number of policemen and officers resistant to change and modernisation, preferring to do things the old-fashioned, unscientific and unrefined way, they have also created a security monolith that no one seems able to manage or reform. To everyone’s dismay, that unhealthy mould became the immediate trigger for the turbulence ravaging the Northeast. Amnesty International and other local civil society organisations have given us an earful of the reprehensible practices of the police. Rather than be shamed into refining their methods, as the current Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, is crusading, they prefer to deny all wrongdoings. And rather than prevent or limit to the barest minimum poor policing tactics, they seem resigned to routinely and absentmindedly punishing errant policemen as a satisfactory remedy. But prevention is always better than cure.

    The police hierarchy should be worried that the country is daily inundated with newspaper reports of police misbehaviour. The top brass need to be shamed into action. Torture, extra-judicial killings, discourteous policing methods that alienate the public, and as experienced by a newspaper recently, even imperiousness by top police officers who should know better, and on whose shoulders the reforms being undertaken by the IGP rest, are some of the widespread reports that humiliate and ridicule both the police as an institution and the country as a whole. Given the attitude of many police officers and the rank and file, it is not unlikely that the IGP will find it increasingly difficult to make his modernisation efforts permeate the entire organisation. He has scrapped police checkpoints, which for decades opened the largest black nation on earth to scorn, and is moving to undo decades-old habits of torture and cruelty. He will need likeminded officers to succeed. But it is not clear whether he has succeeded in identifying passionate and patriotic officers burning with the zeal to give Nigeria one of the most modern police organisations in the world, if not in technology, at least in methods.

    Nor is it even clear that the presidency, which itself is still steeped in fairly archaic ways of running a 21st Century government, shares the IGP’s passion for change and modernisation. This column acknowledges the efforts of the IGP and some of his officers, and even feels the IGP sometimes cuts a lonely picture up there where he is. If he wishes to succeed, however, he must change gear by doing something definitive about his officers who abuse their power, and he must also reconceptualise the training paradigms of both the officer corps and rank and file, clean up the torture chambers and remould them into proper crime detection and crime investigation departments, and forcefully but intelligently institute behavioural changes in his men, police stations and police commands all over the country. Very many of his top officers are too steeped in the methods of the past to be of any use to a modern police and to the country.

    A surgical intervention is needed to restore public confidence in the police. A failure to carry out that surgery means abandoning the police force and indeed the entire country to an uncertain and brutish future and perhaps eventually to an anarchical showdown. The task is not easy, but for the sake of the country, the IGP, who has talked the talk quite engagingly, is encouraged to take firm and concrete measures to implement his reforms. He must believe in himself and not condone the laxity, collusion and connivance many of his men are noted for.

  • Ode to Obama’s triumph

    SIR: The fiery Barrack Obama’s victory in the 2012 US presidential elections dispersed hope to all on earth; and stitched us all to joyous dancing mood. Mr. Obama has brilliance, discipline, compassion and fabulous good luck. He makes life feel like we are all walking in the procession of freedom and unending joy.

    He is balanced and inspiring. He certainly will make the world more secure in the richness of the vast bonds of love that infinitely bind us together in this life’s long and tedious trek.

    Mr. Obama’s intellect ceaselessly tends the glory of mankind’s unyielding mutual respect that conquers the sword of fear and hatred. With him is the world locked in soothing peace and the bounty of life.

    I hail the connecting powers of President Obama’s personal allure and share in the global joy sprouted by his latest grand political triumph.

    • Adewale Adeeyo,OON

    Ikeja, Lagos

  • Don’t politicise Lagos’ Okada restriction

    For many Lagosians, it is no lon-ger news that those dare-devil profiteering bike riders have had their wings chopped by the new Lagos Traffic Law. Simply, their presence is no more on Lagos highways. And while I miss my Okada when in haste to catch an appointment or when I don’t want to be trapped in a crazy traffic, I don’t miss their reckless conduct on the roads. I’m going to have to endure. But, here’s how I view the law as it concerns my love/hate relationship with the Okada. Like body-building or stamina-building, or intelligence-building, one might need to suffer shirt term pains, for long term gains.

    While a little part of me feels the law is draconian, I nevertheless appreciate its coming. Within a short spate of being used as commercial transportation mode, okada riders have become a menace, responsible for ghastly accidents, loss of limbs, deaths, and robberies. Any sane Lagosian will have to agree as much.

    But, reading a story, ‘Okada ban: Learn from Jonathan, PDP tells Fashola’ published on page 4 of The Punch newspaper of November 4, 2012, was infuriating. I could not just understand why some politicians take swipes at each other unnecessary. According to the story, the Lagos State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), to stop the clampdown on commercial motorcyclists, known as Okada.

    Quoting the Publicity Secretary of the party in Lagos, Mr. Taofeek Gani, said, “Seeing the level of hardship the restriction has caused, I think the reaction of a sensitive government would be to reverse the decision. Fashola should learn from Jonathan. When Jonathan saw the level of protest against the introduction of the N5,000 note, he stopped it. He also reversed the total removal of petroleum subsidy in January because of the effect it would have on people. That is how leaders who are interested in the welfare of people act.”

    Well, I think the Lagos PDP is entitled to its own views. But, it must understand that comparing President Jonathan’s executive excesses with the Traffic Law being implemented by the Lagos State government is puerile at best. The fuel subsidy removal was an anti-people policy which wanted to increase their cost of living unfairly. The on-going rot in the petroleum sector, exposing scrupulous deals among high-powered individuals shows where the stolen wealth has been going. Yet, the Jonathan-led executive government had wanted Nigerians on January 1st, to start suffering for the rich cows. It was snuck on Nigerians at a period they were celebrating. How callous? Also, the introduction of thee N5, 000 did not fly because its merits could not pass the test of whether it was the most pressing of our needs as a nation. For a government that has hammered on turning Nigeria into a cashless economy, the move to print higher currency denominations could only have drawn suspicion and anger from citizens.

    But, in the case of Lagos, while the motorcycle is recognised as a means of transportation, the actions of riders consistently violated existing traffic laws, hence, proving a grave hazard to the well-being and lives of the whole populace. Daily, the dare-devilry exhibited by many Okada riders have landed many Lagosians in hospitals after ghastly accidents, with limbs and lives lost in the process. According to statistics released by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), in the past two years, 107 persons died while 512 persons sustained serious injuries in 442 Okada-related accidents in the state.

    If Gani stays in Lagos, he must agree that Okada riders were filled with utter disregard for simple traffic laws; they wrongly overtook, sped like demons, overloaded, and did not even wear helmets. Gani should also know that Okadas were used to commit crimes and for quick entries and getaways. Though, I don’t agree with the demonising employed Lagos State Commissioner of Police Umaru Manko who said that most of the robberies in the state were committed by Okada riders, I however agree that Okadas contributed a fair quarter in assisting robberies.

    But, still on the Lagos PDP’s position, it must be recalled that in the FCT Abuja, Okadas were banned by a PDP-led federal government. Subsequently, PDP-ruled states like Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Enugu, Ebonyi, Delta, and Cross-River have all restricted the movement of Okadas. I wonder why Gani and his likes in the Lagos PDP conveniently forget that aspect.

    With decaying infrastructures and negligence of the people at the macro-level, Nigeria over the years became a jungle where survival was not just for the fittest, it was for the opportunist. Okadas presented an opportunity from failure of organised transportation system. Riding Okadas in towns and cities became a ‘faster’ route to wealth. Youths were no longer interested in learning a trade. Hence, there was a rush whereby even citizens from states as far as Sokoto, Borno, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu all migrated to Lagos just to ride Okadas. After all, Lagos is as where the money is.

    Gani claims the ban would affect Lagosians. Of course, it would have its biting effects. A sore that has been left infested for so long would be painful when being treated. But, if only that pain can be endured, healing and a better life comes after. However if that pain is resisted, the sore merely festers on. Of course, the state government still has to solidify its alternatives, but like every law, the people have a duty to obey it. The rise of Okadas on Nigerian roads was a failure of governance and indiscipline of its citizens.

    But, truth is that, many Lagosians appreciate that is for everyone’s good. Stories of Okada-related accidents and deaths would be fewer. And contrary to pessimists, this move would not create unemployment. The state has different provisions to develop and sustain artisanship. Surely, as a mega-city, Lagos needs more carpenters, plumbers, welders, tailors, cooks, chefs, bar-tenders, sportsmen. I see enforcement of the Lagos Traffic Law as checking this trend, making Okada riding not that profitable anymore.

    The passage of the Lagos State Traffic law by the Lagos State House of Assembly was initiated by facts – the road carnage via which many people have lost limbs and lives, the armed robberies perpetuated with the aid of Okada, the aggression and the general disorderliness on the roads. The Law is simply aimed at improving the welfare of Lagosians. And the enforcement of this law is very much different from the oil subsidy removal or the proposed introduction of the N5, 000 note, both policies which had no legal backing, but were rather an executive decision meant to be secretly foisted on Nigerians. Lagos PDP should realise this.

    • Joseph writes from Agege

  • Someday, traffic offences will attract death penalty

    Someday, traffic offences will attract death penalty

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) was reported in the Wednesday edition of The Punch to have submitted a proposal on constitutional amendment to the National Assembly. One of the striking recommendations the northern political group made, the paper said, was capital punishment for those found guilty of corruption. This startling suggestion is bound to attract more than a cursory attention from the public, especially against the backdrop of the Edo State governor’s insistence on executing two state convicts on death row. The convicts, Messrs Daniel Nsofor and Osayinwinde Agbomien, were condemned to death many years back. Their sentences have now been confirmed by the Supreme Court.

    It is unlikely the ACF proposal was inspired by Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s resolve, but the northern group probably sustains its argument with the same philosophy that undergirds the Edo approach to crime fighting. Hear Oshiomhole’s argument: “I am convinced that those people (the two convicts) need to die. In the interest of society they need to die under the law. The rule of law is different from resolutions by some NGOs and nations are not governed by NGO resolutions. We must have a balanced view of human rights in which the rights, not only of the man they killed but the right of his relations, and much more importantly, to send a clear message to would-be murderers, that when you kill a human being and you are caught, you are likely to die. If you don’t want to die, then abstain from killing. If criminals abstain from killing, fewer people would be killed by robbers and other murderers and that is the truth.”

    Oshiomhole’s rationalisation is not too different from that of the ACF. Hear the northern political group: “The law classifies crimes according to the severity of their consequences both on the individual victim, the community or the country. If crime holds a high potential to gravely harm or kill its victim, the more severe the punishment, which was designed to punish and deter offenders. This is to say that punishment must always fit offences. One crime that has proved capable of gravely harming or killing its victim, Nigeria, is corruption. Sadly, our laws have not recognised corruption for what it is. ACF recommends that corruption be recognised as a capital offence and made to carry capital punishment.”

    Neither the governor nor the ACF is right about the capacity of the death penalty to deter capital crimes. There is no country where capital crimes have inverse relationship with capital punishment. In fact, even in the United States, which still retains capital punishment in the statutes of a few states, states with capital punishment have higher incidence of capital crimes than states without the death penalty. Both Oshiomhole and the ACF should avail themselves of the numerous studies on the topic rather than rely on general impressions and suppositions. They must recognise from available statistics that robbery rate has not declined in Nigeria since the Gen Yakubu Gowon administration promulgated a decree to make robbery punishable by death. Robbery has in fact increased. And in spite of extra-judicial killings by policemen, robbers have not become less vicious or less fecund.

    It is disquieting that we have found ourselves in the position of recommending the death penalty for certain categories of corruption instead of examining scientific ways of curbing the malaise. Would we not someday get the brainwave to extend this extreme measure to traffic offences? Life has been made very cheap by both lawbreakers and security agencies; we should not now make it even more worthless by extending capital punishment to sundry crimes, further vitiating the little claim we have left to decency and civilization, and reducing ourselves, like the lynch mob, to the bestial level robbers would like us to sink.

  • Deeper concern over healthcare waste

    SIR: Recently, Federal Ministries of Environment, Health and Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) organised a stakeholders’ summit on healthcare waste management as a collective responsibility’.

    It is interesting that representatives of both the federal ministries, State Ministries of Environment and Health, Federal Medical Centres, University Teaching Hospitals, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research & Development (NIPRD), Private Health Care Facilities, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) and House Committee on Environment, were in attendance among others.

    The summit recommended the establishment of a national inventory on healthcare waste management to support evidence-based interventional schemes implementation; training programmes for regulatory officers, healthcare facility workers and waste handlers; urged the federal government to play a lead role in the assessment of best available technology/best environmental practice approaches for healthcare waste management; facilitate information sharing and to attract necessary capacity and infrastructure support to states and their call for approval of policy on healthcare waste.

    But my challenges go to federal and state ministries of health and envirnment because majority of healthcare waste falls wthin their jurisdiction.

    The NCH meeting centred on the problems of healthcarewaste management n the country’s healthcare facilities and recommended among others that, by the end of 2007, all healthcare and research facilties should put in pace infection control systems. And that waste management committee must include head of the hospital or his representative, the heads of departments in a hospital, and their registered Environmental Health Officers in chrge of waste managemnt. By the end of 2007, the meeting also recommended that every healthcare and research facility, where none exists, shall create an Environmental Health Department/Unit manned by qualified professionals charged with the responsibility of environmental health services including waste management; by the end of 2010, every Teaching Hospital, Specialist Hospital and Federal Medical Centres and other similar health care facilities with more than 200 beds shall provide within their premises, a modern incinerator and ensure the employment of sufficient Environmental Health Officers for effective management of wastes within their facilities, and many others.

    These and other recommendations were communicated to all Chief Medical Directors of University Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres by Federal Ministry of Health. The Registrar, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria [EHORECON], Mr Augustine Ebisike also wrote to the Minister of Health in 2007 over the issue.

    Sadly, till date, there is no appreciable progress in our teaching hospitals and federal medical centres, state specialist hospitals and other healthcare facilities to support summit’s recommendations on healthcare waste.

    Only a few health centres like Federal Medical Centres Yenagoa, Birnin-Kudu, Azare, Nguru, Dala Orthopaedic Hospital, have units that take care of environmental health issues as against the directive of former Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo on the creation of such departments/units and the employment of environmental health officers based on 2007 NCH.

    The only way this stakeholders summit on healthcare waste can achieve its objectives is by the monitoring of the Federal Ministry of Health to make sure the Lambo directive is implemented to the letter. More so, the Federal Ministry of Education should be involved as it has jurisdiction over universities health centres/clinics, which are also generating healthcare wastes.

    • Sani Garba Mohammed,

    Department of Public Health Technology, Federal

    University of Technology, Owerri.